NHL Continuing Inquiry Into Oilers’ LTIR Usage

When teams have big-money players stashed on long-term injured reserve for significant portions of the season, it’s become commonplace for the NHL to direct additional scrutiny toward their medical records to ensure they’re not circumventing the salary cap. It’s become a hot-button issue in recent years with star players missing most or all of the regular season with injuries, only to return at the beginning of the playoffs when the upper limit is no longer in effect.

In every case in recent memory, the league has been satisfied with the documentation they’ve received, and those inquiries have been closed during the postseason. However, that isn’t the case with the Oilers and winger Evander Kane, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff writes. The league’s investigation on that matter is still ongoing, and the potential remains for the Oilers to have a retroactive penalty if they conclude Edmonton violated the CBA.

It’s not clear what aspect of Kane’s LTIR usage the league isn’t satisfied with. He didn’t return immediately as the playoffs started – he was only cleared for Game 2 of the first round against the Kings, not Game 1, and didn’t receive an AHL conditioning stint leading up to his return. Edmonton also didn’t dip into the cap flexibility that Kane’s LTIR placement afforded them until the trade deadline, when team doctors confirmed he wouldn’t be cleared to play before the end of the regular season.

Speculatively, the issue could be the nature and timing of the second surgery Kane underwent. The power winger played through a sports hernia at the tail end of last season and finally ended up undergoing a wide-ranging procedure that repaired multiple hip and abdominal muscles in September 2024. Waiting until training camp to undergo the procedure was already eye-raising, but it only carried a four-month timeline that would have had him back in the lineup before the trade deadline anyway.

Then, Kane underwent an unrelated surgery on his knee in January, pausing his rehab from his earlier surgery and effectively ending his regular season. The team didn’t disclose details on the procedure at a time. Yesterday, Seravalli reported the surgery removed a “congenital tumor-like growth.” With the knee issue being present for his entire life and career, the league could be questioning why the Oilers chose that specific window to have Kane undergo surgery, particularly so late in his recovery from another procedure.